Kerr MacGregor

Kerr MacGregor, who has died aged 70, was one of the UK’s leading authorities on solar energy.

He first became interested in the possibilities of solar power while teaching in Swaziland in the 1960s. After returning to Scotland he lectured at Napier University, Edinburgh, for 30 years, founded the Scottish Solar Energy Group and was the Scottish Government’s energy spokesman and advisor on energy policy.

A keen Nationalist, he also stood twice for Parliament in the safe Liberal seat of Caithness and Sutherland – the constituency containing Dounreay nuclear power station – where, though unsuccessful, he doubled the SNP’s share of the vote on a renewable energy policy.

A champion of solar heating applications in cloudy and northerly locations like Scotland, he was a founder of a series of international North Sun conferences and presented several award-winning papers to gatherings of experts around the globe.

Born in Troon while his father was working in Assam, India, as a mechanical engineer, the pair did not meet until several years later when he and his mother were able to travel to the sub-continent. He wasn’t there long when he was sent back to boarding school in Ayrshire and on to Edinburgh’s George Watson’s College.

He graduated BSc Hons in mechanical energy from Edinburgh University where he was pipe major of the OTC pipe band and took part in the Edinburgh Tattoo, later inventing a solar powered version of the pipes.

His first job was at Rolls-Royce but little over a year later, in 1964, he left for Swaziland to work as a teacher with International Voluntary Service.

He spent more than a year there, where his pupils included several of the King of Swaziland’s children. He also travelled all over the country helping to undertake a census.

On his return to Scotland he completed an MSc in bio-engineering at Strathclyde University before beginning a long association with Napier University where he was a senior lecturer in mechanical engineering and set up the energy engineering course.

He had already met and married his wife Anabel, with whom he went on to have four children. The couple lived in Temple Village in Midlothian, where he was former chair of the Moorfoot Community Council and convenor of the Twinning Committee linking Temple with Ivry-le-Temple in France.

Although he retired from Napier at the age of 60, he continued to teach, at Glasgow Caledonian University and as a guest lecturer at universities at home and abroad. He established his own consultancy, MacGregor Solar, in 2002, continuing his research and developing more applications for solar heat. Last year he was named as one of the top 20 environmental champions in Scotland.

Driven by practical experimentation and pragmatically economic techniques for capturing free renewable energy, his many inventions and innovations included Solartwin, a successful freeze tolerant solar water heating system, the Thermoscreen and the DIY “clip fin” flat-plate solar collector.

A member of the Scottish Renewables Forum, he also designed smart solar shades for sunspaces in homes, solar collectors used in swimming pools in the UK and Spain and solar thermal slates, now used in hundreds of “hard to heat” Scottish homes, helping to heat air and control damp and related asthma problems.

In 1981 he delivered a paper analysing high latitude solar potential at the World Congress of the International Solar Energy Society (ISES), shortly after he founding the Scottish Solar Energy Group. The first of 11 North Sun conferences was held in 1984, followed 12 years later by a series of Eurosun conferences.

He travelled extensively, in both a professional and personal capacity and there were few countries in the world he hadn’t visited. An enthusiastic motorcyclist, he biked throughout Europe and in north Africa and India. He was due to depart, in a few weeks time, on a solo trip through five countries following the Baltic Sea and had just obtained his Russian visa.

He drove a variety of different motorbikes and was a member of the Lothian and Borders Classic and Vintage Motorbike Club. He also enjoyed sailing and cycling on a solar-powered bike.

Latterly he was responsible for running Solar One a solar display vehicle used to introduce the potential of solar technology to schools, festivals and exhibitions. He also ran DIY solar water heating courses and had been running one in Knoydart, on the west coast, on the day of his death. Having completed the course, he had sat in the sun playing his solar bagpipes whilst waiting for the ferry back to Mallaig.

He is survived by his wife, Anabel, children Kirsty, Eoghann, Ellen and Colin, grandsons Sorley and Alasdair, his brothers Ally and Robbie and sister Annie.